[Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis, and Interpretation - 1992 Edition ]
[Amendments to the Constitution]
[Twenty-Third Amendment - Presidential Electors for the District of Columbia]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office, www.gpo.gov]
[[Page 1987]]
TWENTY-THIRD AMENDMENT
__________
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Section 1. The District constituting the seat of Government of the
United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct:
A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the
whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the
District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than
the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed
by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the
election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a
State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as
provided by the twelth article of amendment.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.
ENFRANCHISEMENT OF RESIDENTS OF DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
``The purpose of this. . . constitutional amendment is to
provide the citizens of the District of Columbia with appropriate rights
of voting in national elections for President and Vice President of the
United States. It would permit District citizens to elect Presidential
electors who would be in addition to the electors from the States and
who would participate in electing the President and Vice President.
``The District of Columbia, with more than 800,000 people, has a
greater number of persons than the population of each of 13 of our
States. District citizens have all the obligations of citizenship,
including the payment of Federal taxes, of local taxes, and service in
our Armed Forces. They have fought and died in every U.S. war since the
District was founded. Yet, they cannot now vote in national elections
because the Constitution has restricted that privi
[[Page 1988]]
lege to citizens who reside in States. The resultant constitutional
anomaly of imposing all the obligations of citizenship without the most
fundamental of its privileges will be removed by the proposed
constitutional amendment. . .
``[This] . . . amendment would change the Constitution only to
the minimum extent necessary to give the District appropriate
participation in national elections. It would not make the District of
Columbia a State. It would not give the District of Columbia any other
attributes of a State or change the constitutional powers of the
Congress to legislate with respect to the District of Columbia and to
prescribe its form of government. . . . It would, however, perpetuate
recognition of the unique status of the District as the seat of Federal
Government under the exclusive legislative control of Congress.''\1\
\1\H.R. Rep. No. 1698, 86th Cong., 2d Sess. 1, 2 (1960).